Dish Network Wins Blockbuster with $320 Million Bid at Auction

Remember Blockbuster? Poor Blockbuster. All it wanted to do was rent movies to people. Then Netflix came along with a more appealing offering: movies sent right to your house with no late fees.

By the time Blockbuster got its wits about it and started offering a similar service that worked both through the mail and at its retail stores, Netflix had its sights set on streaming. By the time Blockbuster got its streaming offering together, the writing was already on the wall.

There’s a Blockbuster kiosk in the convenience store right down the block from me and I’ve actually seen people rent movies from it, so there’s that.

But nothing could save poor Blockbuster, so the company declared bankruptcy. Satellite service provider Dish Network has just outbid “at least three other bidders” at a bankruptcy auction, according to Reuters, with a bid of $320 million—Dish expects to pay out $228 million in cash when the dust settles.

While it’s uncertain what Dish may do with Blockbuster’s remaining retail locations—sell Dish equipment and oversized boxes of Butterfinger Bites, perhaps—it’s almost certain that the satellite provider will be putting Blockbuster’s digital content library to good use for on-demand content.